Curtains for Joran van der Sloot?

By Howard Chua-Eoan

When police in Lima arrested Joran van der Sloot in May 2010 for the murder of Stephany Flores Ramirez, another mysterious saga appeared to be at an end. The young Dutchman had been at the center of the investigation into the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a young American who went missing in Aruba in 2005 after leaving a bar late at night with van der Sloot and two of his friends. Her body has yet to be found, and van der Sloot's many retracted versions of what happened made prosecution difficult. But the Flores murder may have sealed his fate. According to Peruvian police, he was furious that Flores was snooping into his laptop and asking questions about Holloway. "It was an invasion of my privacy. She had no right," he allegedly told the investigating officers. He said that he and Flores fought and that he beat her repeatedly, breaking her neck. Van der Sloot, who says he was tricked into signing a confession in the Flores killing, is awaiting trial in Peru. Meanwhile, Holloway's mother spoke out about an attempt by van der Sloot to extort money in exchange for information about her daughter. The case in Aruba has not moved forward.